A Pint of Best

Move over Belhaven?

What's the deal with pints of Best these days? I've noticed recently in quite a few bars such as the Murrayfield Hotel and Ghillie Dhu have substituted Belhaven Best with Caledonia Best.

To be honest it tastes pretty similar though it still costs the same for a pint. Maybe it's cheaper by the keg than Belhaven.

It's such a phenomenon it's even made the Scotsman newspaper.

The Cumberland Bar: 15/3 Cumberland Street Edinburgh

Set in the quiet streets of the New Town, this is a great old fashioned bar. It boasts lots of oak wood, alcoves, booths, and old advertising handing from the walls. The beer is fairly decent as well with lots of real ales on hand pull.  

I didn’t think much of the food, the battered haddock was a bit dry for my taste but the beer and atmosphere was enjoyable and the staff were helpful and friendly.

The Cumberland Bar is a great venue in summer as it has a beer garden that can rival the Pear Tree.

The Citrus Club: 40-42 Grindlay Street Edinburgh

Friday night is 80s night at the citrus club. No it’s not a geriatric night but a night celebrating generally rock/pop music from the 1980s.

It costs £6 to get in but you get a free Curly Wurly and the drinks pretty cheap. Bottles of Fosters are £1.50 and you can get some horrendous apple sours for £1. Within a few drinks you’ve pretty much entry fee back.

I’m not sure if they change the drinks promotions so my advice is ask. Also the DJ can be inclined to play some fairly rubbish tracks so make some requests to ensure he doesn’t!

Free with admission

Mr Modos: 133-135 Lothian Road, Edinburgh

If you are looking for cheap drink and own a SNAPfax this is the ideal place to go. Pints of Best are £1.75 as are pints of Carlsberg. There is a blackboard of drinks deals worth consulting. Apparently it does good cocktails too though I can’t say I tried them myself.

Mr Modos is a classic rock bar, which is a nice change to the pop/dance music you hear in many bars. On Friday nights it seems to be packed with young students (presumably there for the cheap drink) but I’ve been there on Saturday night when it has been relatively quiet and I was easily able to get a seat.

Being a classic rock bar, the bar is full of pictures of rock greats of the past, which are good for stimulating conversation. If you can’t be bothered talking they seem to have some board games available such as Connect 4.

This bar does have some peculiarities though. For some reason the seating area down the stairs often has a sign saying it’s reserved, though it’s always empty, so I’m not sure what that is about. Maybe they are expecting the Rolling Stones to show up and need a place to sit? Also there was a barman wearing a hat that seemed pretty pissed off to be working there and was generally unhelpful, my advice - avoid him. The other bar staff were great though.

Overall I’d say they have a winning combination with cheap drink and classic rock.

The Queens Arms: 49 Frederick Street, Edinburgh

I liked this pub. It is a stylish bar, without being overly trendy, and despite its proximity to George Street attracts a laid back and well behaved crowd.

The beer selection is reasonable including bottles of the ilk of Erdinger, though is not overly ambitious. My favourite things about this bar were the attractive barmaids, and book shelf containing a job lot of old books. Highlights of the reading material include; an old medical encyclopaedia, various historical studies and a book of Shakespeare’s plays summarised into a few pages per play.

Other interesting features include empty bottles of wine handing from the ceiling. However it’s not all oddball features. There are TVs in the various corners so you can watch the sport.

Enjoy a book with that pint

Holyrood 9A: 9A Holyrood Rd, Edinburgh

A few people had recommended this bar to me as a great place to go for a beer and a burger. I eventually managed a visit with friends a few days before New Year and was impressed by the quality and range of produce on offer.

According to their website this is a ‘concept bar’. The concept is a good one: great diverse beer and tasty burgers. The bar is divided into a bar area at the front and a restaurant area towards the back of the building. Both are fairly comfortable and stylish.

To begin with the beer:  Check out the menu of beer they have on offer. While not as extensive as the beer available in the likes of Brauhaus, there is a pretty good selection. I tried the Hollyrood beer which went down nicely with my burger. There is a large selection of beer on tap including Blue Moon, Black Isle Blonde and a few Brewdog beers - which though not to my taste seem to be finding their way into more and more bars. One word of warning – avoid a pint of Peroni or Framboise, they will set you back the best part of 5 notes here!

The food: While there are also other items to choose from it is all about the burgers at the Holyrood 9A. Again there is a whole menu of burgers and I particularly like the way it’s divided into one hander and two. At around £7-9 its fairly reasonable for these tasty burgers.

The only thing that disappointed me about this bar was the service. We were served by a waitress who was utterly miserable, and though we had been told we would have the table until 8.30 when we made the reservation, we were actually turfed off it at 8.

The Holyrood 9A left me confused. It is pricier than the average bar and when you pay more you expect better quality. The quality is certainly there in the beer and food (and I’d definitely recommend it for those attributes), so why the poor service? Also the beer I had was ‘Hollyrood’ spelt with a double ‘l’. What’s that about?

A confusing beer in a confusing bar!

The Black Bull: 12 Grassmarket, Edinburgh

The Black Bull has the potential to be a reasonable bar. It has some interesting bottled beers behind the bar and also has plenty of TVs to watch the sport, including a couple of small tellys behind the bar so that you don’t miss a minute of the action while you wait for a pint.

The problem though is twofold;

1.       The layout of the bar: the layout is awkward. There are mainly small areas of no more than a few seats facing a TV screen, so if you want to watch the sport with several mates you either need to rearrange the furniture or head elsewhere.

2.       The location: what’s the best way of describing Grassmarket on a Friday and Saturday night? A warzone? Well unfortunately the Black Bull attracts many of the Stag and Hen nights and other assorted characters that tend to frequent the Grassmarket area.

Having said this, the Black Bull is a good place to get a cheap student pint, so maybe it’s not all bad!

Grassmarket on a Saturday night! (Please note this picture may have been taken a few years ago)